Cruising - Cape Horn
Cape Horn the hard way Veteran adventurer Bob Shepton recounts how he shepherded a group of school leavers around Cape Horn in a small cruising boat
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his is me being awkward, and particular. It may seem I am splitting hairs, but I feel that in this case the terms we use are quite important. What am I on about? To quote from my own Addicted to More Adventure, hopefully soon to be published: ‘It always amuses me, or perhaps annoys me a little to be honest, when people sail out of Puerto Williams or Ushuaia, sail round Cape Horn island, go back again and say they have rounded the Horn. They have not, not in the
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true sense of the word’. Rounding the Horn involves sailing from 50°S on one side of South America to 50°S the other side, which is a very different ball game. They may have sailed around Cape Horn island, which is an achievement because it can be stormy, but they have not 'rounded the Horn'.
A purists route
But why is it important? Well, for a start it does denigrate the achievement of those who have rounded the Horn properly, which requires a great deal more effort.
DECEMBER 2021 Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting
ABOVE Rough times off the Horn
But more than that, to my mind it is disrespectful to those sailors of yesteryear who rounded the Horn fully, 50°S to 50°S, in square rigged ships, in huge raging seas, in mighty winds, some against the prevailing wind east to west. To go to windward in those ships was an undertaking in itself, and for people to pop out from the Beagle Channel, sail around the island, go back and say they have rounded the Horn could be seen as an insult really. Our ‘ship’, some years ago now, may have been a good deal smaller, a Westerly 33 foot sloop, but at least we
